Brotherly Love

My boys love each other. Sure, they fight and argue just like any other siblings, but they really do love each other. On Tuesday, they wanted to have snack sitting in the same chair. Will must have known they looked cute together because he ordered me to get my camera and take some pictures. I think the photos pretty much say it all, don't you?

Now I just have to look at these pictures the next time they fight over whether something is yummy. ("Nummy!" says Will. "Not nummy," says Henry. Over and over again.) And I will remember that they truly do love each other. They're brothers and best friends, after all.

Preschool Program

Last Thursday night, Will's school had an open house and program featuring the entire preschool. The open house started at 6:30pm and the program didn't begin til 7pm, which is late for our little ones. Fortunately, Will had a nap that day, so he did well. Henry, on the other hand, got to Will's classroom and immediately said, "Go home," which he repeated over and over throughout the night. Finally we had to promise him a cookie afterwards to get him to stay!

We weren't too sure how Will would perform at the program. At the Christmas program, he cried and then sucked his thumb the entire time. He thought I was going to be up on stage with him and that led to his little meltdown.


This time he understood what was going on, but he still didn't participate. Well, that's not completely true. He hummed the entire thing. Progress, no?

Do you notice the little boy in green at the right side of the picture? He was really into the music and was standing right in front of a microphone, which led to a number of hilariously loud and exuberantly performed segments!
The funniest part was the very end when the pastor asked the kids to sit on the risers. Every single child, except Will, sat down. I knew he was scared of being up on the risers, so I wasn't surprised the he wouldn't sit down. Finally a teacher led him to the other end where he could sit safely.All in all, it was a successful evening. We saw all Will's schoolwork displayed at the open house and enjoyed listening to the kids sing, and then the boys devoured a cookie and rainbow sherbet that the school provided after the program. We've made progress indeed!

Dress Up

The boys love to play dress up, so I keep their old Halloween costumes and other dress up goodies in a big basket in the playroom. One day last week, Will wanted to be a fireman, so we put on his costume from Halloween '08.

We don't have an ax (obviously!), so Will pretended to knock down the walls with this toy shaker. He's nothing if not creative! I think this pile of books and blocks was the "fire." Whatever it was, he was working pretty hard at containing it! The horse you see is actually the fire hose.

Henry decided to be a monkey, which is fitting because I have always called him "Henry Monkey." This is the costume that he was supposed to wear for Halloween '09. If you recall, Will was going to be the zookeeper and Henry his monkey, but at the last minute, Will refused to put on the zookeeper costume, and instead insisted on wearing the size 12-24 month monkey outfit! So, it was nice to finally get some pictures of my littlest monkey in the monkey costume.

He had fun finding his tail and the banana.

And don't all good dress up sessions end with the fireman reading a story to the monkey?
Surely this is something straight out of a Curious George book!

Spider Songs

It is not news that my boys like music, but Will has recently been asking for music outside. I guess it's not enough that they have CD players in their rooms and playroom, along with CDs scattered around the house and our cars. Now we need to jam to songs outside as well!

I finally gave in and made some room on my iPod for some kid music. Normally I just use my iPod and dock for boot camp playlists, but now I also have the Spider Songs CD that I made for Will's 3rd birthday party on it.

Henry was trying to figure out exactly how this worked.

But then he started "dancing" in place by waving his arms!

They are listening to "Polliwog in a Bog" by the Barenaked Ladies and Will is pretending to be a polliwog. Of course he is!
Just waiting for the next song to come on.

Next up is "Roly Poly" by Roger Day. Will is counting along with the song: "1, 2, 3, 4, Roly Poly!"

And away they go!

Next time you're in our neck of the woods, join us for a pajama-clad boogie in the backyard!

The Voice of Reason

If you have a two-year-old, you know that it is very hard to reason with him. Henry is no exception. The other day, the boys were playing a game on the computer and Henry saw this yellow vehicle.

As soon as Will pushed a button, we all heard the siren go off. This is the conversation that followed:

Henry: School bus!

Will: Mommy, is that a school bus? It has a siren. I think it's an ambulance.

Mommy: Yes, it is an ambulance, but it is yellow, so that's why Henry thinks it is a school bus. He can call it a school bus if he wants to.

Henry: School bus!

Will (patiently): Henry, it is not a school bus. School buses are longer and have more windows. This has a siren. It is an ambulance.

Henry: School bus!

Will: Henry, it's not a school bus. It's an ambulance!

Henry: School bus!

Clearly there was no winner in this "argument," but I love how Will explained his position very clearly. Look at the following pictures and you'll see that while he was explaining, Will got right in Henry's face to make his point.
They disagreed but still were laughing and hugging the whole time. Perhaps the voice of reason will prevail one day, but in the meantime, I'll happily take laughter and giggles from my two little boys.

Nature Class, Take 4

Will had his fourth Tadpole Troopers nature class at the Houston Arboretum yesterday. It seems that every time it gets slightly better. He even managed to stay through the craft this time, though if you ask him, he will claim that he does not like nature class. I think these pictures tell otherwise.

It was drizzly yesterday morning, so he got to wear a poncho. Gene took some video, and he definitely loved that poncho!

The kids were learning about weird plants, so they took off to pollinate flowers.
I wasn't there, but it looks like Will had fun pollinating the flowers and finding a beautiful patch of bluebonnets.

And even though this was the plant class (reptiles was the first session), they did get to witness a turtle crossing the road! Just a little bonus...

Afterward, Will and Gene had special lunch at Champps. Will has one more nature class this spring, and it's about weird amphibians. Since he is fascinated by poisonous frogs right now, I'm hoping he will actually want to attend nature class for once!

This is what we do...

This is what Henry and I do when Will is at school:

I am unloading a few things from Target and Henry is sitting outside, even though it is cold, with a snack and one of his many Lightning McQueen cars. I love my mornings with just Henry. He is such a sweet, happy little boy (most of the time!).

It is so quiet here (relatively speaking), and I love that too.

Easter

Easter finally arrived, after an entire week of celebrations, hunts, and parties! The boys woke up to discover small baskets. I decided not to go overboard on candy, so instead filled them with new DVDs, Easter stickers, carrot-shaped chalk, and just one small chocolate bar each. We have too much candy around here, including some leftovers from Valentine's Day!

For breakfast, we feasted on hard-boiled eggs, kiwis (they're egg-shaped!), and Portuguese sweet bread from Gene's aunt Helen and cousin Therese. Sweet bread is a Portuguese tradition at Easter but Gene didn't get the chance to make it this year. Yum! Everyone loves it, so we are so lucky that Gene's relatives sent us some!

After breakfast, we went to church and then had some relaxing time at home before we had to start preparing dinner.
Nana and Pop arrived bearing more sweet bread and candy.
To distract the boys (Henry) from the sweets, we headed outside for our fourth Easter egg hunt of the year. The boys knew exactly what to do!
Henry went right up the ramp of the play set.

Will scouted out goodies hidden between the swings.
After the hunt, we went back inside to open up Easter goodies from Gramma and Grampa. These cute boxes are CD holders that my dad made, and they were filled with a chocolate bunny, a stuffed animal and some eggs.
Finally, my favorite part of the day: dinner! Gene was in charge of the ham.
And I made the sides: roasted asparagus, roasted cauliflower from the farmers' market (white and yellow, so gorgeous!), and corn pudding. My mom brought scalloped potatoes and pistachio torte for dessert. What a feast!
And after dinner, we went back outside to play. The boys got our their Lightning McQueen race car. We've had it for awhile now, thanks to my generous neighbor, but Easter was the first time the boys had done more than sit in it and push the buttons.

Will ran right into the tree.

And then the house.

Getting a little help from Daddy.

Henry wanted to get in too. It's not really built for two, but they managed.
What a way to end the day!